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TNA
The Royal Treatment: RAW (9.19.05)
Posted by Peter Kostka on Sep 20, 2005, 00:55
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I have a pretty major announcement regarding my future here at TSM, but I�m going to make you read the whole recap to find out what it is. I�m evil like that.
Live from Wichita Falls, Texas.
Tonight: Trish Stratus faces Torrie Wilson, Ric Flair defends his Intercontinental title (that�s just weird to see) against Carlito in an Unforgiven rematch, and a big 8-Man Tag is our main event.
Eric Bischoff, the old WWE Title belt over his shouder (with nameplate that reads �Kurt Angle�) hits the ring. He introduces Angle and recaps what happened in the main event last night. John Cena put his hands on him, so Eric is going to do something about that: strip Cena of the WWE Title and award it to Angle. But before he can, Vince McMahon interrupts. Man, how sad is it when it�s Vince regularly gets one of the biggest face pops in the company? He�s out for one of his patented �Major Announcements� but first informs Bischoff that he can�t strip titles and award them to someone else (Uh�.HHH?) and declares that since the match ended with a DQ, Cena is still champion. Now, onto his announcement: on October 3rd, there will be a special RAW called �WWE Homecoming� where a bunch of old stars will �come home�, including Hulk Hogan, Triple H, Mick Foley (not according to the dirtsheets) and Stone Cold Steve Austin. But there will also be a WWE Title match. Angle assumes it is him, but actually, it will be John Cena defending against��.Bischoff? What the fuck? All these big stars and the main event is John Cena vs. Eric Bischoff?! Seriously, what good can POSSIBLY come from that match? Angle is understandably pissed off.
Bischoff chases Vince to his limo, trying to beg out of the match, but Vince won�t change his mind.
Torrie Wilson (w/Candace and Victoria) vs. Trish Stratus (w/Ashley)
Torrie has new music, which must make Lillian Garcia happy. The match is a mess, with Candace distracting the ref and Victoria hitting Trish, but Torrie only gets two. She yells at Candace (why? She didn�t count) and Trish rolls her up for the pin. Trish uses the Matrix dodge to avoid a Torrie clothesline afterwards, but she and Ashley end up beaten down. Since I have nothing else to add, might I say that How I Met Your Mother is a solid comedy series?
Rating: DUD
These �Homecoming� ads are fine, but, unless Spike won�t let them say it, they really should add in that they are moving to USA that night or UFC will get a lot of confused viewers who might not go to RAW all night.
Trevor Murdoch (w/Lance Cade) vs. The Hurricane (w/Rosey)
The match is essentially a way to put Hurricane on the shelf for a while, building off of the DDT Murdoch gave Hurricane last night, which gave him a �stinger� in storyline terms. Hurricane bumps well and sells his left arm (because the angle is his shoulder was also injured in the match), fighting right handed, but Murdoch takes advantage of the injury and drives him into the corner with snake eyes before drilling him with another DDT for the pin. This match helped put over Murdoch as a tough guy and Hurricane as gutsy.
Rating: 2/10
Edge is in Bischoff�s office, wanting Matt Hardy to be fired again for what he did to Lita, but Bischoff doesn�t like being pushed around. He�s tired of the both of them fighting and decides to settle it at Homecoming in a �Loser Leaves RAW� ladder match, with Edge�s Money in the Bank title shot up for grabs. I highly doubt Matt is going to sniff a title shot, so this is a perfect way for WWE to essentially dump Matt to the B-show and still say �Hey, he got his revenge on Edge, what more do you want from us?� Still, that�s a much better �ratings� match than Bischoff/Cena.
Tyson Tomko squashes jobber Eddie Craven, although Cena�s already pinned him twice, so what�s the point?
A recap of the Flair/Carlito feud and Carlito�s entrance takes us to a break.
Ric WHOO Flair � vs. Carlito (IC Title)
Typical Flair offense in the opening moments until Carlito rakes the eyes to control, giving Flair a pretty good shiner in the process. Flair makes the comeback though and chops him down, grabbing an apple and giving Carlito a taste of his own Granny Smith (literally) before keeping the pressure on until Carlito starts to walk up the ramp as we take a break.
Coming back, we find out that Carlito suckered Flair into chasing him so he can slug him down and take control (25+ years in the business and he falls for that bit?) He grabs a chinlock and Flair chops himself out of it, but Carlito nails a spinebuster for 2. Flair�s eye looks pretty bad at this point, though it isn�t swollen shut yet. Carlito pounds in the corner, but Flair takes him down with a Manhattan drop and goes up, actually HITTING A MOVE ! Two nights in a row! He goes for the knee, but Carlito yanks him to the floor and rams him into the apron. He rolls Flair back in and steps through the rope, but Flair kicks it to low blow him and slaps on the figure-four (grabbing the ropes, naturally) to get the tapout. A fun match that shows that, even if his ring skills are falling off rapidly, Flair can still put on a show. Though they really need to stop putting him in 20 minute matches against poor workers.
Rating: 4/10
The faces for our eight man tag (Matt Hardy, Shawn Michaels, Big Show and Cena) cut a promo that makes Hardy look very good standing with the top faces of the brand. Cena�s Rock impersonation continues as he replaces making fun of Coach with making fun of Todd Grisham.
Maria grabs Flair for a victory promo, but Carlito interrupts, leading to a brawl. Masters attacks and slaps the Masterlock on Flair.
Smackdown Rebound. I caught the end of Orton-Taker on Saturday (since it is pre-empted in Boston) and it was a solid match.
The introductions are made for the main event, which is next.
Kurt Angle, Chris Masters, Snitsky and Edge vs. John Cena, Matt Hardy, Shawn Michaels and Big Show
Masters takes a beating from the faces to start, as they keep the action going with quick tags (a must in these types of matches to get everyone involved). He sends Michaels head over heels into the corner and presses him, but Matt tags in and counters a slam with a reverse DDT (which looked very sharp). He pulls Edge in and pounds on him, but Masters sneaks up and gets the Masterlock, but Show saves with a headbutt as we take a break.
Coming back, it�s Matt�s turn to be worked over by Edge, who tags Snitsky, who puts the brakes on the match with a chinlock. Matt escapes, however and hits the Twist of Fate, tagging in Michaels as Angle tags in. A flying forearm and slam sets up the elbowdrop, but Angle avoids it and tries the Angle Slam, but Michaels counters with a rollup, but Angle counters THAT into the Anglelock. Show saves again and fights off Snitsky, but Angle sneaks up and Angle Slams him to the floor as we take another break.
Edge has Michaels in his submission hold, but Shawn gets the rope. Masters tags and works the knee, actually showing some skills for once before tagging Angle, who hits the chinlock. Michaels rallies and hits him with a backdrop suplex. Angle gets up and hits the Angle Slam, but Matt saves only to get disposed off by Masters. Angle tries the lock, but Michaels kicks him off. Edge tags in and spears Cena off the apron to prevent the tag but gets smacked with an enziguri. A pissed off Show climbs to the apron and tags in, fighting off the heels and going for the chokeslam on Snitsky, but Snitsky gets a low blow and Edge scores with a spear, but it only gets two. The heels gang up on him, but Show powers all four off and his teammates join in the fun, Cena channeling Rock again with You Can�t See Me (People�s Elbow v2) on Edge as Show presses Matt onto Masters and Snitsky. Edge eats a chokeslam and the faces pig pile on top of him for the pin.
Rating: 5/10
Thoughts: Highly entertaining, quick paced match that had the crowd rocking for most of it. Not quite the energy level the Dallas 10-man had about 5 years ago, but still a good main event. If they can keep this energy level up in every match, then we have something.
Final Thoughts: Actually a pretty good outing this week. Vince won�t admit it, but you definitely can tell this UFC and TNA are making WWE finally get off their asses and start making people want to stay with RAW instead of trying something different. The Homecoming show will probably pop a huge rating, but I don�t know if they�ll be able to sustain it and prevent people from straying over to the new competition (which UFC is, let�s not kid ourselves).
Anyway, onto my big announcement: Next week will be my final article for TSM. RAW is rapidly losing my interest just like Smackdown did and I just can�t sit through a full two hour show anymore when I have the serious urge most of the night to flip to MNF or something else, so I�m not going to keep doing something that I just don�t have the heart to do anymore. Thank you very much to everyone that has read and provided feedback on my articles over the last 2 or so years I�ve been writing on this site.
Feedback: SmartMarksPKatAoLdotcom
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